Burmese constitutional referendum, 2008
Encyclopedia
A constitutional referendum was held in Burma (also known as Myanmar) on 10 May 2008 (24 May 2008 in some townships) according to an announcement by the State Peace and Development Council
State Peace and Development Council
The State Peace and Development Council was the official name of the military regime of Burma , which seized power in 1988. On 30 March 2011, Senior General Than Shwe signed a decree to officially dissolve the Council....

 in February 2008. According to the military government, the new Constitution of Burma
Constitution of Burma
The Constitution of Burma ) has changed several times since the country became independent from the United Kingdom. Burma's third and current constitution was published in September 2008 after a referendum.-1947 Constitution:...

 will ensure the creation of a "discipline-flourishing democracy". Multi-party
Multi-party system
A multi-party system is a system in which multiple political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition, e.g.The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in the United Kingdom formed in 2010. The effective number of parties in a multi-party system is normally...

 elections
Burmese general election, 2010
A general election was held in Burma on 2010, in accordance with the new constitution which was approved in a referendum held in...

 are to follow in 2010.

The constitutional referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...

 law was enacted and a referendum commission was set up on 26 February 2008. Reportedly, the law ensures the secret casting of votes and requires a public count of the ballots to prove it is fair.

The draft constitution was published and the date of the referendum finally announced on 9 April 2008. Among the changes that the referendum seeks to make are:
  • One quarter of all parliamentary seats would be reserved for military officers.
  • The Ministry of Home Affairs would fall exclusively under military control.
  • Anyone married to a non-Burmese would be barred from running for the premiership. Many international media reports suggest that this provision would have the effect of making opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
    Aung San Suu Kyi
    Aung San Suu Kyi, AC is a Burmese opposition politician and the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. In the 1990 general election, her National League for Democracy party won 59% of the national votes and 81% of the seats in Parliament. She had, however, already been detained...

     ineligible for the presidency, although her British husband
    Michael Aris
    Michael Vaillancourt Aris was a leading Western authority on Bhutanese, Tibetan, and Himalayan culture, and wrote numerous books on Buddhism in those regions. He was the husband of Burmese opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi....

     died in 1999.

Campaign

Three weeks before the referendum, the front page of the state press was headlined "Let's Vote Yes for National Interest." Many songs, poems, cartoons and editorials urging people to vote "yes" were published in local and national news media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...

.

The opposition National League for Democracy
National League for Democracy
The National League for Democracy is a Burmese political party founded on 27 September 1988. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi serves as its General Secretary. The party won a substantial parliamentary majority in the 1990 Burmese general election. However, the ruling military junta...

 called for people to vote "no" to the constitution. However, the N.L.D. claimed their campaign against the constitution was violently suppressed, with activists arrested and material confiscated.

The Kachin Independence Organization, an opposition group which participated in the government's "National Convention" process, called on its members to abstain, saying the government had failed to respond to its demands.

Criticism

Cyclone Nargis
Cyclone Nargis
Cyclone Nargis , was a strong tropical cyclone that caused the worst natural disaster in the recorded history of Burma. The cyclone made landfall in Burma on Friday, May 2, 2008, causing catastrophic destruction and at least 138,000 fatalities...

 hit Burma a few days before the referendum, and the vote was postponed to 24 May in the most severely affected areas — 7 out of 26 townships in Irrawaddy Division and 40 out of 45 townships in Yangon Division
Yangon Division
Yangon Region is an administrative region of Myanmar. Located in the heart of Lower Myanmar, the division is bordered by Bago Region in the north and east, the Gulf of Martaban in the south, and Ayeyarwady Region in the west. Yangon Region is dominated by its capital city of Yangon, the former...

. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...

 called for the referendum to be postponed in full to concentrate on the "national tragedy," but the government rejected this. The Junta came under heavy criticism for diverting critical resources from survivors toward the referendum, including evicting refugees from shelters such as schools so that these can be used as polling stations. Massive fraud and intimidation was also reported.

On May 6, 2008, the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 passed a condemnation of the Burmese constitution and referendum, by a 413–1 vote (the "no" vote cast by Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...

).

Voting

There were many allegations of electoral fraud on the day of the election, including:
  • A village visited by officials in advance of the referendum where 185 people were forced to vote "yes" with absentee ballots
  • Officials giving out ballot papers already filled in with a tick
  • Voters ordered to complete votes for their relatives
  • Government officials sitting close to the ballot boxes and telling voters how to vote
  • Voters bribed to vote "yes"
  • Officials closing polling stations at 11:00 a.m. and then going to the houses of people who hadn't voted and making them vote then


Opposition groups, including the All Burma Monks Alliance, the 88 Generation Students and the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, described the referendum as a sham.

10 May 2008

After the first day of the referendum, the Democratic Promotion Organ of Burma and the Democratic Voice of Burma complained about election fraud. They claimed that, according to witness reports, it was impossible to vote "no" because voters were issued voting ballots that had already been marked "support" and were sent to prison if they refused the pre-marked ballot. It was also reported that there were two separate ballot boxes which were monitored by officials who could see how people voted, and that this might have intimidated voters or allowed for later recriminations. Furthermore, as with many referenda relating to procedural matters, there was concern that many people did not understand the details of what they were voting for, and that this might have affected the vote. The Burmese Junta stated that the referendum would easily be supported.

Results

The day after the election, local media cited informal reports of referendum results as follows:
  • Seven constituencies in Myingyan
    Myingyan
    Myingyan is a city and district in the Mandalay Division of central Myanmar, previously, it was a district in the Meiktila Division of Upper Burma. It is currently the capital of Myingyan Township and lies along the National Highway 2. , the city had a population of 123,700 and the district had...

     Township, Mandalay Division
    Mandalay Division
    Mandalay Region is an administrative division of Myanmar. It is located in the center of the country, bordering Sagaing Region and Magway Region to the west, Shan State to the east, and Bago Region and Kayin State to the south. The regional capital is Mandalay. In the south of the division lies...

    : 67% Yes
  • Meikhtila Township, Mandalay Division
    Mandalay Division
    Mandalay Region is an administrative division of Myanmar. It is located in the center of the country, bordering Sagaing Region and Magway Region to the west, Shan State to the east, and Bago Region and Kayin State to the south. The regional capital is Mandalay. In the south of the division lies...

    : 67% Yes
  • Five townships in Kachin State
    Kachin State
    Kachin State , is the northernmost state of Burma. It is bordered by China to the north and east; Shan State to the south; and Sagaing Division and India to the west. It lies between north latitude 23° 27' and 28° 25' longitude 96° 0' and 98° 44'. The area of Kachin State is . The capital of the...

    : 62% Yes
  • Two townships in Shan State
    Shan State
    Shan State is a state of Burma . Shan State borders China to the north, Laos to the east, and Thailand to the south, and five administrative divisions of Burma in the west. Largest of the 14 administrative divisions by land area, Shan State covers 155,800 km², almost a quarter of the total...

    : 67% No
  • Yenanchaung Township, Magwe Division: 53% Yes


Final results were not expected before the end of May; they were announced on 30 May 2008.

On 15 May 2008, the junta announced that the constitution had been approved by 92.4% of voters, claiming a 99% turnout in the two-thirds of the region that had held the vote.
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